"...Upon seeing the bomb, Bolin Beifong quickly created an earth barrier and tackled his brother to the ground, using himself as a human shield. When said bomb exploded, earth and debris smashed into the bothers. They were rushed to Republic City General. Their condition remains unknown at this time.""This article makes it sound like we almost died!" Mako crumpled the newspaper and threw it to the ground. He seriously thought about burning it, but that dragon nurse of theirs would have a fit.

"Bro." Bolin whispered from the left cot, "Don't yell. My head hurts." And boy did it hurt. A small bit of wood grazed his right temple, knocking him out cold at the scene. All across the back of his body there were small cuts and bruises. He had four fractured ribs, also on his right side. Everything hurt and the last thing he needed was Mako making the pounding in his head even worse.

"Sorry, Bro." The older boy said more softly, "Hey, Bo..."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for, you know, getting me outta that one." That bomb wasn't designed to cause a lot of damage, it really wasn't even supposed to be fatal to a single person...unless you were right on top of it, which Mako had been. If Bolin hadn't seen the spark of the bomb's fuse, if he'd been a second slower...then Mako would've came out with a lot more than a broken left ankle and a few bad bruises on his lower left rib cage.

"Ah, don't worry about it. That's what brothers are for."

"Yeah." 'That's what big brothers are for', he grumbled to himself. Some big brother he was; had to have his little brother look out for him...pathetic, "Lin will be real proud of you when she finds out what you did."

"Yeah? Who are you trying to fool? She's gonna kill us both for joining Tarrlok the minute we find her." Bolin grumbled, Mako found no reason to disagree.

"You mind if I turn on the radio?" A little music to distract from this lovely conversation would be welcome.

"Just keep it down."

"All right." A few spins of the dial and a lively tune filled the room, followed by a slow waltz, and a loud pounding orchestra. Bolin covered his ears and winced, "Sorry." he changed the station, landing on the news channel by accident. Oh well, might as well see if they'd discovered anything new on the equalists.

And now a special report from Councilman Tarrlok. Both of them perked up, they just had to hear what he had to say.

"I'm happy to report that the Beifong boys are expected to make full recoveries." They could practically see the smug smile on Tarrlok's face, "Last night, in the face of danger, I saw those two young men show the same valor that I've seen Chief Beifong display on more than one occasion. I'm sure that wherever she is, she is very proud of the both of them.

"Oh, yeah right."

"Quiet, Bolin."

Their absence will be a great loss to my task force, but we haven't lost all hope yet. For we have, Avatar Korra, who bravely answered the call to action and continues to fight against this threat. With the two of us leading the charge, no more families will be broken apart, and Republic City will have nothing more to fear from Amon and the equalists." His speech was perfect. Now time for the ever important question and answer portion of the press conference.

"Question for the Avatar. Amon remains at large, why have you failed to locate him?"

"You wanna know why? Because Amon is hiding in the shadows like a coward. Amon, I challenge you to a duel. No task force, no chi-blockers, just the two of us. Tonight, at midnight on Avatar Aang Memorial Island. Let's cut to the chase and settle this thing. If you're man enough to face me."

"So let me get this straight, Tarrlok's fired us and Korra's going to fight a bending stealer on a secluded island...alone."

"That right."

"Do you think that she's... possibly... been hiding her avatar state power and saving it for the final showdown tonight?"

"I think she's crazy and she's going to get herself killed. But at least she'll be outta our hair."

"...So when do you wanna escape?"

"Right now." But that wasn't going to be easy, "Can you walk?" As a matter-of-fact, Bolin wasn't sure if he could even get off his left side, but neither of his feet were in a cast at the moment so as far as he was concerned he was better off than Mako.

"Can you?" Thanks to the miracle of crutches, yes. He spent five minutes trying to find ways to reach them before he gave up and hopped across the room. And he was still faring better than his little brother who painstakingly turned over, careful not to touch his ribs to the mattress, got to his knees and crawled down from his cot looking much like a two-year-old in the process.

"She owes us one for this."

"Think she'll listen?"

"Not a chance."

Lin found her mother in the canyon behind her home with Bolin. The earthbending lesson was nearing it's conclusion and she was in no hurry so she stood on the sideline and let them finish.

"Have fun learning from the crone, Boy?" She asked as he dragged himself over.

"Yeah!" He suddenly perked up. 'Two seconds ago, he was half-dead. There is no way to break that kid's spirit, is there?', she thought to herself, "And she taught me what to say in a fight too."

"Oh?" That couldn't be good.

"He's a good student, too. Check this out. Hey, Rhy, what do we call firebenders when they're stupid enough to cross us?"

"Hot-headed Dweebs." He answered without a second's hesitation. Did Lin expect anything else?

"Waterbenders?"

"Tearbending Sissies...except Aunt Kya, 'cause she's cool."

"That's right." Toph nodded, "Airbenders?"

"Tap dancing-no." The tap-dancing twits were chi-blockers, "Airbenders are Fancy-dancing Windbags."

"Earthbenders?"

"Awesome Pulverizers."

"Attaboy." The proud grandmother patted Bolin on the head.

"Lily-livered Mudslugs, Kid." Her mother made a point to insert a much more complimentary term for her own element. That was favoritism, and favoritism was wrong. Besides, that term was coined by Katara and it was one of the few times Toph ever got a dose of her own medicine... and Lin wasn't about to let her forget about it.

"Huh?"

"Earthbenders. They're lily-livered mudslugs."

"Traitor." Toph grumbled.

The time for her daily chat with Amon had come and gone. He must have had something more important to do. Maybe he decided that it was time to make another move against the city. Now the question, should she assume the worst and try to escape before she was fully prepared to warn her officers, or should she stick to the plan? If she risked escape and failed, she wouldn't get a second chance, if she didn't someone could get hurt.

"There you are." Bolin, Mako, and their getaway driver finally found the avatar in the arena's gym, putting herself through a rigorous workout.

"You guys are out of the hospital already?" She paused ask as the three did their best to look innocent.

"Yeah, at least until the orderlies find us and drag us back." the earthbender grinned. So they escaped, Korra had no right to judge.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ah, the infamous question. All three went to answer, Bolin beat the others to it.

"We took a very painful car ride to-"

"To talk you outta doing something stupid." Mako interrupted.

"Mako." Asami shook her head, "Korra, are you sure about this?"

"If Tarrlok put you up to this, don't do it." the firebender insisted, "Just look what happened to us!"

"What are you talking about?"

"We figured it out while we were looking for you." Asami answered her, "Tarrlok put them on point-"

"The most dangerous position someone could be in, by the way." Bolin added.

"-because he was hoping they'd get hurt and he could turn them into martyrs."

"You sure?"

"Why else would he put us in that spot when he had better people for the job?" Mako growled, "He's probably just mad that we survived!"

"Don't. Yell." the younger brother grimaced, "But he's right, we played right into his hands. You can't make the same mistake."

"No, Tarrlok didn't tell me to do this. I decided to do this, I have to. I'm the avatar." They stared at her.

"So?" Mako finally asked with a 'what's your point' undertone.

"So...it's my duty to help people." She stated the obvious.

"Got that." Sure it was her duty, Uncle Tenzin told him all kinds of stories about Great-Uncle Aang helping people, thing was...he usually had a plan courtesy of the friends he had to help him, "But how's going against Amon and his goons alone gonna help anybody?"

"I'm not going up against all the equalists, just Amon."

"Korra...guys like Amon don't know how to fight fair, they always bring back up. If they didn't, I woulda beat Shin and not got caught." And the grandpa he never met wouldn't have been murdered, his mom would still have a husband, his grammy would still be alive. Come to think of it, bad guys seemed to gang up on the Beifongs a lot.

"It's too dangerous, you can't go." Mako had decided.

"I'm with him." Bolin voted, even if it wasn't up for debate.

"Me too."

"Stop telling me what to do!" Korra snapped, "You're not my parents!" She stormed out of the room, but not before hearing Bolin's sad reply,

"No, we're your friends."

"Roll call, Beifong-arugh" Her jailer was caught off guard as her right hand grabbed his wrist, "Awk-" and her left hand punched him in the throat. When he went down, gasping for air and futilely trying to free himself from her iron grip, she delivered a quick punch to the temple, knocking him out cold. No keys. 'Damn it'. It took five unauthorized entries into her cell, but someone intelligent finally decided to take his keys away. Today of all days. Just her luck.

Disappointed, but not completely discouraged, Lin searched him and found absolutely nothing that would help her get out of the cell. Nothing at all. She really had thought she'd find a pair of lock picks on him for some reason. Now there was nothing she could do but wait for someone to find him.

After a few hours, she vaguely wondered if her jailer was going to make a recovery...or if his comrades even cared whether he lived or died, Amon himself was at her cell with a few minions and his lieutenant, who had reached his breaking point judging by his reaction,

"Kill her." The minions moved in. She kept her air of defiance, if she was going to die, then she was going to do it with dignity and take at least one of those bastards with her.

"Wait." Amon ordered, lifting his hand in the stop motion, "Take her to the interrogation room. Do not harm her."

"What?" Did Lin hear that right?

"What?!" The lieutenant asked, slack-jawed. Amon glared at him and he quickly changed his tone.

"I mean...you heard him! Take her to the interrogation room!" Despite Amon's orders, the trip had been none too gentle. Though what did she care? She was too busy trying to figure out why she was still alive.

"Chief Beifong." The equalist leader came to see her a few minutes after she'd been cuffed, "That was not your most intelligent plan."

"Best I could come up with on short notice. What have you done this time?" There was a reason he didn't talk to her earlier that day. And she had been thinking that it was about time for him to make another show for power and she wanted to know what it was.

"The avatar challenged me to a duel. I accepted." He explained. She couldn't keep a surprised and downcast look from forming on her face. What possessed that girl to pull a stupid stunt like that?, "I didn't take her bending away."

"Why?" What sort of plans did this nutcase have?

"It is simply not time. During a war, the ruler of the losing side is the last one to be destroyed."

"Ruler?" That teenager? Lin wouldn't follow her in a war against waterbenders in the Si Wong Desert, "Ha. She's just a kid. If you want a great victory, you should've waited until she's full grown."

"The same can be said of you, and your sons." He placed a newspaper in front of her. She eyed him before glancing down, 'BEIFONG BOYS IN HOSPITAL'. The headline read, along with a picture of Bolin and Mako being carried on stretchers, "They joined Tarrlok's army to find you. But their inexperience cost them the battle."

"..." Shock, panic and grief took the words out of her mouth and sent her mind spinning. They were hurt. Damn them. Why didn't they stay outta this? How bad were they hurt? This paper said a bomb went off, but didn't say how bad they were hurt. What the hell?! Amon took the paper back, the act snapping her out of her daze, somewhat.

"They will live. But their wounds will leave them vulnerable." It didn't take a genius to see where this was going, "This is your only warning. From now on, you will be compliant, or I will send for your sons. Have I made myself clear?" He knew how to break an earthbender, they could endure anything as long as they had hope. Take that away, the battle was over.

"Crystal." She'd fought a good fight, but her one hope was keeping her family, and the city, safe from Amon. Now that hope had been shattered, and she broke.